Name
Thomas Walter Roberts
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/07/1916
18
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2857
East Surrey Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 6 B and 6 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring, New Mill Baptist Church Roll of Honour, Tring
Pre War
Thomas Walter Roberts was born in 1897 in Tring, Herts, the son of Walter Roberts , gas fitter, and Mary Ann (nee Hosegood).
On the 1901 Census the family of parents and Thomas were living at New Town, Tring where his father was working as a gas fitter for Tring Gas, Light & Coke Company Ltd.
On the 1911 Census the family of parents, Thomas, John, (born 1902), Newton (born 1908) and Dorothy (born 1907) were living at the Gas Works, Tring where Thomas’s father was manager.
Wartime Service
No Service Record was found for Thomas who enlisted in Watford, Herts as Private 2857 sometime in 1915 . He went to France to join the 7th (Service) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment in 37 Brigade, 12 (Eastern) Division. He was aged 17. He served in France from June 1916.
He was attached to the 19th (Service) Battalion, Manchester Regiment in 90 Brigade, 30 Division when he went into action on 23 July 1916 at Trones Wood, during the Battle of the Somme. When he failed to answer the roll-call after the engagement with the enemy, he was presumed to be 'missing' or a prisoner. Several months later when enquiries later found no trace of him, his parents were notified that he was presumed dead. He was deemed to have been killed in action on 23 July 1916, aged 18. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Thiepval, France.
Additional Information
His father received a War Gatuity of £8 10s and arrears of £3 10s 5d. Pension cards exist with his father as dependant but no amount of pension is recorded.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild, tringlocalhistory.org.uk,
